New Nepal PM sworn-in, forms cabinet

Barely three weeks after a democratic federal constitution was promulgated in Nepal, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was on Monday sworn-in as the new prime minister heading an eight-member cabinet.

President Ram Baran Yadav administered the oaths of office and secrecy to Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) chairman Oli and his cabinet colleagues at a brief function here in Sheetal Niwas, the presidential palace, Xinhua news agency reported.

Oli, who was elected prime minister by the country's parliament on Sunday, chose two deputies in Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar and Kamal Thapa.

The two have been rewarded for the support they extended to Oli during Sunday's vote against immediate past premier Sushil Koirala, of the Nepali Congress.

While Thapa heads Nepal's only royalist party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Gachhadar is chairman of the Madhesi Rights Forum, Democratic -- which chose to break away from the ongoing anti-constitution agitation by the Madhesi community and ethnic people of Nepal's southern Terai plains.

The five administered oath as ministers were Agni Kharel, Satya Narayan Mandal, Som Pandey, Haribol Gajurel and Ram Kumar Subba. Their portfolios were yet to be announced.